Back in February, Eddie Murphy made his first appearance on anything Saturday Night Live related in 30 years when he stopped by the SNL 40th anniversary special. It was a very short appearance, which left many wondering why he was there at all.
Since then, it has been revealed that he was supposed to play Bill Cosby in the Celebrity Jeopardy sketch written by Norm MacDonald. Murphy opted not to do it and Kenan Thompson instead performed in the bit.
In a new interview with The Washington Post, Murphy finally explained why he decided not to do it, even though he thought MacDonald’s sketch was funny. He said that he doesn’t think there is anything actually funny about the situation itself, as over 40 women have accused Cosby of sexual assault.
“It’s horrible,” Murphy told the Post. “There’s nothing funny about it. If you get up there and you crack jokes about him, you’re just hurting people. You’re hurting him. You’re hurting his accusers. I was like, ‘Hey, I’m coming back to SNL for the anniversary, I’m not turning my moment on the show into this other thing.’”
Instead, what Murphy did do that night was incredibly anticlimactic. Chris Rock gave a four-minute introduction about how great and influential Murphy is, which turned out to be longer than Murphy’s own appearance. He didn’t even tell a joke and appeared to throw off even the camera crew with his short speech.